How to email important people

PassivePanda: If you’re serious about networking, then you’re going to need to reach out to important people.
Important people are busy. They are the A–listers, the celebrities in your field, the best–selling authors, the executives and other respected individuals.
(They’re also mere mortals with flaws like the rest of us, but that’s a different discussion.)
The point is, they’re interesting people and they’re usually great to know on both a personal and professional level. In some cases you’ll run into them on a plane, meet them at a conference, or get an unexpected introduction from a friend.
Random encounters like this might happen once per year. On the other 364 days, however, you’ll have to purposefully reach out to them.
More often than not, the easiest way to get in touch is through email. In many cases, it’s also the only reasonable method of contact since personal emails are often listed on the web, but phone numbers are not.
Of course, tracking down an email address is just part of the battle. Getting a response is the real victory. In this article I’ll share five examples of email strategies that have been very successful for me when contacting decision–makers.